3 Quotes & Sayings By Liesbeth Heenk

Liesbeth Heenk (Netherlands) is a writer and editor. She is the author of many collections of poetry, fiction and essays. She has translated works by Joris-Karl Huysmans, Paul Celan and Peter Handke amongst others. She has edited several anthologies and written a biography on Paul Celan Read more

She lives in Amsterdam.

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Van Gogh on his brother's upcoming marriage: "It’s because he’s in Holland, where he’s getting married one of these days. Now, while not denying the advantages of a marriage in the very least, once it has been done and one is quietly set up in one’s home, the funereal pomp of the reception &c., the lamentable congratulations of two families (even civilized) at the same time, not to mention the fortuitous appearances in those pharmacist’s jars where antediluvian civil or religious magistrates sit — my word — isn’t there good reason to pity the poor unfortunate obliged to present himself armed with the requisite papers in the places where, with a ferocity unequalled by the cruellest cannibals, you’re married alive on the low heat of the aforementioned funereal receptions. Liesbeth Heenk
2
Van Gogh on Christmas: And now we’re slowly heading towards winter, and many dread it, but Christmas is wonderful, it’s like the moss on the roofs and like the pine and the holly and the ivy in the snow. Isleworth, 10 November 1876 Liesbeth Heenk